"There was nothing undecided about that clap.

Its mind was made up." Zara suddenly rose from her seat, and drew aside the window-curtains.
"I wonder if it is raining," she said.
Amy Everard uttered a little shriek of dismay.
"Oh, don't open the blinds!" she exclaimed.

"It is really dangerous!" Heliobas glanced at her with a little sarcastic smile.
"Take a seat on the other side of the room, if you are alarmed, madame," he said quietly, placing a chair in the position he suggested, which Amy accepted eagerly.
She would, I believe, have gladly taken refuge in the coal-cellar had he offered it.

Zara, in the meantime, who had not heard Mrs.Everard's exclamation of fear, had drawn up one of the blinds, and stood silently looking out upon the night.

Instinctively we all joined her, with the exception of Amy, and looked out also.